Freedom Martin’s Dream

Generosity

The Wealthiest Man in the World

True heroes

True heroes

John was the second of six children. When he was still a child, he did chores at home to earn some money. Later he sold pota- toes, snacks, and turkeys. At the age of 23 a portly John started his first business and be- gan to prosper. He worked hard, and at the end of 10 years he had already made his first $1 million. He dedicated every waking hour to his work, and at the age of 43 he owned the world’s largest company in the oil industry, Standard Oil Company. However, John had such a huge burden of troubles and stress that he was ill and sad all the time and had lots of enemies. An acquaintance of his told him, “John, you look terrible. You are the oldest man I have ever seen.” He started losing hair from his head, and later, also his eyelashes, eyebrows, and mustache. He was left with no hair on his body. He had a very aggressive form of an illness called alopecia. He was unrecog- nizable, and people said that he looked like a mummy. Each week he earned $1 million. It’s a lot of money! But his stomach would function so poorly that he was able to eat only cookies with milk.

to think only of oneself! People like that end up because their selfish attitudes drive other people away.

Isolated from people, John did not have a social life. When it was absolutely necessary to go out, he would wear a wig to disguise hisJohnugliness.wanted to be loved, and did not un- derstand why he was hated so much. The large amount of money that he had accumulated did not provide him peace or happiness. In reality, while seeking to protect and control his wealth, he discovered that it was destroying him. He was not able to sleep, eat, or enjoy anything. He was so desperate and weak that he felt like a child who had dedicated a lot of time to buil- ding a sand castle and then could only watch as the waves destroyed his work. The cookies that John, with a bad tem- per, managed to eat no longer sustained his weakened body. Observing him becoming increasingly thin and downhearted, everyone expected his death. The doctor had not given him more than a year to live, and journalists already had a draft of his obituary saved in their files.

John had not worried much about others. Many times he had caused detriment to defen- seless individuals in an attempt to make more

Michael was the middle child of the King family. He was born in Atlanta (Georgia, U.S.A.) and grew up in a 13-bedroom home in the best black neighborhood in the city. After his birth, his father changed his name to Martin Luther. The King family was Christian. The father was a respected pastor in the Baptist Church. Martin had an admirable voice, and his parents thought he would become a singer. He sang with the church choir in Atlanta at the premiere of the movie Gone With the Wind. Slavery, abolished after the War of Secession (Civil War), was a sad episode in North American History. Howe-